Pakistani backs push for peace
Premier says getting Afghans, Taliban to talk won’t be ‘easy’
WASHINGTON — After years of tension between Washington and Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan insisted Tuesday that the two are now on the same page and said he will do his best to persuade the Taliban to open negotiations with the Afghan government to resolve the war.
The U.S. has been engaging with the Taliban, but so far they have refused to talk directly to the Afghan government, which it sees as a U.S. puppet. Afghans are wary of Pakistan’s involvement in crafting a future for their country, but Khan said the Taliban need to participate in the next Afghan presidential election in September.
“It’s not easy. It’s not going to be easy,” Khan said about getting the Taliban and the Afghan government to the negotiating table.
Khan said the Taliban delegation to the U.S. negotiations asked to meet with him a few months ago probably because the prime minister has maintained there is no military solution to the war in Afghanistan. He said at the time that he didn’t do it because the Afghan government didn’t want him meeting with the Taliban.
But Khan said he’s spoken with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and he will reach out to the militant group when he returns to Pakistan. He met Monday with President Donald Trump.
“Now, I will meet the Taliban and I will try my best to get them to talk to the Afghan government,” Khan said at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington. “The election in Afghanistan must be an inclusive election where the Taliban are also participating.”
Afghans also wary of statements coming from Pakistan. For years, they have accused Pakistan of creating instability in their country by giving militants a safe place from which to stage attacks across the two countries’ long, porous border.
Washington also has blamed Pakistan for harboring the insurgency, making it impossible to defeat the militants, who now control roughly half of Afghanistan, but not the cities.
Khan insisted that Pakistan is changing.
“It is the intent of Pakistan that we do not allow any armed militias in our country,” he said, acknowledging that they still reside in the country, but that the army was working to disarm them.
A senior administration official said the U.S. welcomes his pledge that Pakistan will not allow its soil to be used by militant groups, but said the administration was “cleareyed” about the support that Pakistan’s military and intelligence services have given to militant groups and will look for “concrete action.” The official spoke only on condition of anonymity to brief reporters before Khan’s visit.
Khan said his meeting with Trump went well and that he believes the U.S. and Pakistan are now “on the same page.”
“We loved our meeting with President Trump yesterday,” Khan said in a morning meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. “I told the president, I said ‘I’ve been a public guy for 40 years, and so when you go meet someone who is high-profile you get a lot of advice,’ Never have I gotten so much advice.”
Separately, Indian opposition leaders on Tuesday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi clarify his position in Parliament about Trump mediating in India’s long-running dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar read out a statement in the upper house of Parliament saying Modi made no such request to Trump as the U.S. president had claimed.
It has been India’s consistent position that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally, Jaishankar said. “Any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross-border terrorism,” he said.
Members in both houses of Parliament demanded that Modi make a statement on the issue. Opposition leaders Anand Sharma and D. Raja said it was a serious matter.
Trump said Modi recently asked him whether he would like to be a mediator or arbitrator on Kashmir. Trump spoke to reporters in Washington before Monday’s meeting with Khan.
India and Pakistan have fought two wars over Kashmir, the Himalayan territory they both claim and which is divided between them. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents who have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. Islamabad denies the charge. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.